- Should consumers have the right to sue a company that allows their personal information to be stolen by data thieves?
- Under a proposal moving quietly through the 2021 Utah legislative session, the bar for filing such a lawsuit would be raised considerably in the event that a company has taken at least some measures to keep your data protected.
- Jacey Skinner, the chamber’s vice president for public policy and general counsel, said the new protections were “a very positive way to help with the goal of protecting customer information” as opposed to rules that only mete out punishment, usually in the form of fines, if and when computer hacks or other actions lead to the loss of customers’ personal information.
- The national lawyers group also warned that the creation of an affirmative defense against tort claims, as the Utah proposal seeks to do, does not result in an impenetrable liability wall. The group’s legal analysis notes there are other avenues by which consumers who have lost data seek damages and that the safe harbor does not let companies off the hook in having to present a defense of their cybersecurity systems.
– Art Raymond | February 14, 2021
